Baker Roofing moving to new Garner home!

The new owner of an old Kmart-anchored shopping center in Garner, just across the south Raleigh border, has plans in the works to revamp the property with extensive renovations and new construction.
Baker Roofing, a company with a long history in Raleigh and a reach across the South, purchased the 29-acre site at 4300 Fayetteville Road, currently home to a Sears. The price tag: $8.6 million. But that investment is just the beginning, says Prentis Baker III, Baker Roofing chairman.

With residential and commercial business continuing to ramp up, the firm has been on the hunt for a new Raleigh office. The company has been at its current location, at 517 Mercury St., since 1972. “We’ve outgrown our facilities and space over here,” Baker says. “Parking is a huge problem for us.”

But significant work is required at the shopping center to prep it for the roofing company. The property lacks a shop yard. The building also needs a new roof, something that Baker knows a bit about. Renovations to the exterior of the building will be at least a year-long process, he says. “It’s going to take a while. We’ve got a lot of work to do to the building inside and out,” Baker says.

In the meantime, Baker says the firm is in talks with a national company about developing more square-footage on 3 acres of the property’s street frontage, along Fayetteville Road.

More changes could be in the works for the property, he says. “We’ve got a big spacious area there and we have a lot of potential and possibilities,” Baker says.

The company’s existing location is near downtown Raleigh. Baker says there are no long-term plans to sell the property.

Kmart announced it was closing the Garner location in 2013. The old shell, now filled partly by Sears, consists of 170,740 square feet and is 77 percent leased. Baker Roofing purchased it from Soad Properties LLC, an entity managed by Issa Shaikh. Shaikh owns several commercial and residential properties throughout southern Wake County.

Baker Roofing provides a variety of roofing services, from installation to waterproofing. Based on total revenue, Baker Roofing is the third largest roofing contractor in country, according to the International Roofing Expo.